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With the owners of the Indian Premier League (IPL) involved in the Hundred, there has been a lot of chatter if it will affect the involvement of players from Pakistan. However, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) have squashed all such rumours and believe no such thing would be affecting their premier franchise tournament.
As many as four IPL franchises will now be involved in The Hundred. Owners of the Mumbai Indians (Reliance Industries Limited), Lucknow Super Giants (RPSG Group), Sunrisers Hyderabad (Sun TV Network Limited) and Delhi Capitals (GMR Group who are the co-owners of DC) placed successful bids for Oval Invincibles, Manchester Originals, Northern Superchargers and Southern Brave respectively.
Each of these teams have also invested in other franchise tournaments around the world like the SA20, ILT20, Major League Cricket (MLC) among others.
With all six owners of the SA20 being from the IPL, it saw no Pakistan players take part in the competition this year. Hence, there was some doubt if that effect would spill over to The Hundred as well. However, the ECB chief executive reassured that the opportunities for Pakistan cricketers will not be affected.
“We’re aware of that in other regions, but that won’t be happening here,” ECB chief executive Richard Gould was quoted saying to ESPNCricinfo on the restriction on Pakistan players considering IPL franchises are involved.
The India TV market is very important for us: ECB chief Richard Gould
Gould also acknowledged that with the IPL franchises now involved, the Indian TV market will add some extra value to the broadcasting rights. It is something that is crucial for them.
“In terms of the India TV market, the overseas market is very important for us. The fact that we have got such a wide-ranging set of investors from around the globe will, I believe, help us to add extra value to our overseas broadcast rights,”
The ECB chief also admitted that having Indian players in The Hundred is not in their plans as of now, given BCCI’s stance on their players featuring in overseas leagues.
“In terms of availability to Indian players, that is not priced in with our plans. The BCCI’s position has been very clear. At some point we’d love to see Indian players come and play in England. We currently see them obviously in bilaterals and actually quite a lot in county cricket. But that’s not something that we have predetermined through this process,” Gould added.
